20 Truths Behind The Legend
by YamiPaladinofChaos
Summary: The Shodai Hokage was a man. Nothing more, nothing less. Written for the 20 truths lj community.


**Title:** 20 Truths Behind The Legend  
**Author: **ypaladinofchaos/YamiPaladinOfChaos  
**Character**: Shodai Hokage  
**Rating**: PG  
**Disclaimer:** Naruto's not mine.  
**Notes:** Takes place within the same continuity as my Akatsuki and Konoha claim.

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1. The legend of the Shodai Hokage relates that he was born by an enchanting wood sprite during the noon of the vernal equinox. His father had been a warrior whom the wood sprite had fallen in love with, but the warrior soon died in a bloody conflict.

2. The spirits were angered by the wood sprite's attachment to mortals, forcing her to flee to a forest to give birth. However, his otherworldly mother had to return to the spirit world soon after, leaving the future Hokage to be raised by the creatures of the forest.

2. This legend further goes to say that he met his mother again when he was barely out of infancy, when the wood sprite left a squalling baby boy with unusual silver hair to him. His mother requested that he look after his brother, which he vowed to do.

3. When this boy grew up a little more, he felt himself growing distant from the creatures of the forest that had raised him. Though his brother did not share his sentiment, the future Hokage despaired.

4. One night, he fell to his knees and cried out, begging his mother to help him.

5. His mother, moved to pity, granted him the unique power to control the forces of the woods around him. He became innately attuned to the changes of the world, even at the cost of social interaction.

6. The legend relates the next few years of the young man's life as a time of training, during which his brother, who lacked the respect for the woods that the eldest brother possessed, left.

7. Three years after his brother left the woods, the future Shodai Hokage was afflicted with a classic case of a young man's yearning for adventure. Restless, he eventually left the woods himself.

8. It further goes on to say that he encountered his brother within a few weeks, who had been training in the Water Country, and convinced his brother to come along with him. Along the way, the two brother's fighting prowess attracted numerous followers.

9. After a series of misadventures and exploits, along with being kicked out of numerous countries by various daimyo, the future Shodai Hokage arrived in Fire Country. The rest, as they say, is history.

10. The above legend of the Shodai Hokage is almost completely exaggeration and myth. The following is the true tale.

11. The future Shodai Hokage was born in a dirty, stinking hovel of a house to an ex-priestess who had been shamed and exiled from her order. He never knew a father, except through the occasionally murmurings of his mother's troubled sleep.

12. His strange and unusual powers over nature caused him to be ostracized by the village nearby, and it wasn't long before both he and his mother were driven out of the village completely.

13. His mother and he were captured by slavers soon after. They treated him in the manner all slavers to- like property.

14. He and his mother were sold to a young daimyo of the Water Country who saw through the dirty looks of the woman and the maiden's beauty she still possessed. As a favor, he took in her son as well, though he treated him badly, wishing for his own heir rather than the bastard son of some unknown man.

15. Soon after being taken in, his mother bore a son for the daimyo. Despite their different fathers, his half-brother treated the future Shodai with the reverence that only a younger sibling possesses. The future Nidaime Hokage

16. Eventually, the future Hokage ran away, with his brother following him. The two of them swore that they would find their own way in the world, and build their own paradise together.

17. They briefly fought as mercenaries in the First Great Ninja War, becoming known for their tenacity. During one battle, the future Shodai Hokage battled an extremely powerful boy who had the power to control sand.

18. It was this battle in which he learned that he had the unique ability to bind Biju to his will and seal off their power.

19. After the First Great War ended, the brothers and those ninja who had grown to respect them traveled the world, learning and fighting for a place to build the brothers' paradise. They never managed to build that place, but Konoha stands as a testament that they gave it their best shot.

20. The Shodai Hokage was a man.

Nothing more, nothing less.


End file.
